Xixiang Luo Wins First Asian WSOP Gold Bracelet of the 2025 Summer Series

Lightning tends to strike the same spot twice but that can no longer be said about the WSOP gold bracelet tally for Xixiang Luo. The mixed game aficionado from China has had a remarkable last 12 months with several trademark victories and has now become the first Asian player to etch his name into the history books of the 2025 World Series of Poker. What makes the latest victory even more remarkable is the fact that he followed up his two wins from last summer and convinces in uncommon poker variants.

Xixiang Luo Wins Event #24: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot

Technically, Xixiang Luo was the defending champion of Event #24: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot as he took down the predecessor Event #41: $1,500 Mixed: No-Limit Hold’em; Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot (8-Handed) in Sin City one year ago. After returning to the Horseshoe and Paris Hotel Las Vegas for the latest installment of poker’s annual summer camp, the Chinese poker pro wasted little time before entering the winner’s circle once more.

Compared to the previous event which featured only one PLO Bomb Pot hand per orbit, the new tournament on the 2025 WSOP schedule switched entirely to the action-packed four-card variant for the entire duration of the tournament. A total of 1,452 entries generated a prize pool of $1,927,530. Despite the fairly low buy-in, the field was littered with poker’s biggest names: Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel,  Ren Lin, David Williams, Huck Seed, and Kane Kalas. In the end, Luo was the last man standing to claim the top prize of $290,400 after defeating Robert Klein in heads-up.

Final Day Summary

The final day saw 13 players return to their seats in the Horseshoe Event Center and Luo was sitting atop the leaderboard. Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Yan Shing “Anson” Tsang had been the last casualty the previous evening and had to settle for a payday of $14,748. Yang Wang was among the contenders but bowed out in ninth place for $23,735, after which five former bracelet winners reached the final table.

Among them was 2023 WSOP Player of the Year Ian Matakis, who finished seventh for $40,410. Luo not only retained his lead but gained half of the chips in play soon after when scooping a pot against Brian Smith. His top spot lasted until the heads-up stage during which eventual runner-up Klein almost closed the gap. However, Luo had the best of it multiple times and eventually scooped his way to victory.

Prior to the 2025 WSOP in Las Vegas, Luo had already cashed for more than $4.5 million in international poker events and his last two results were wins during the Red Dragon Poker Tour Jeju stop in May. He has already reached the top ten in China’s all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob and confirmed in the winner interview that he will be focusing on mixed games for the remainder of the summer with the 2025 WSOP Main Event being the only exception.

*Photos by Pokernews

Links:

2025 WSOP – Results 
2025 WSOP – Asian Players Early Deep Runs